ng the
Jews as they packed his clothes and books and carted them off from his
lodgings. The next year the king was forced to make him a secretary of
state. Though gambling continued common, it became less extravagant and
was more widely condemned. In 1796, when the war with France was
sobering people, some ladies of rank created a scandal by keeping a
faro-bank at their houses. Chief-justice Kenyon threatened the pillory,
and Gillray expressed and stimulated public opinion by a caricature
representing two of "Faro's daughters" in that position. One of them,
Lady Buckinghamshire, and two of her associates, were fined the next
year for unlawful gaming. Fox and other gamesters of the wild time
supplemented the faro-bank by betting at Newmarket. It was a notable
period in the history of the turf, for many great men, specially of the
whig party, were eager and judicious breeders. Such were the king's
uncle, Cumberland, the breeder of Eclipse, Grafton, Rockingham,
Egremont, Richmond, and Sir Charles Bunbury, whose horse Diomed won the
first Derby race in 1780. The professional bookmaker was not yet, and
racing, though used for betting purposes, was free from some evils which
grew up later. The sport was popular, and in 1784 as many as 500 plates
were raced for annually.

[Sidenote: _EXCESSIVE DRINKING._]

Excessive drinking was common in society. Since the Methuen treaty of
1703 port was the wine most drunk. A genuine port cost about two
shillings a bottle, but the wine was largely adulterated on importation,
and one stingy lord is said to have recommended his guests to drink his
port instead of a more expensive wine by assuring them that he knew that
it was good as he made it himself.[178] Men would constantly drink two
bottles of port apiece at a sitting, and sometimes three and even more,
and would appear in parliament, in the theatre, or in a drawing-room in
a state of drunkenness. A treaty with France in 1786 largely increased
the consumption of French wines, but this change, which favoured
sobriety, was ended by the war. Nevertheless, drunkenness was less
general than earlier in the century, and, except in the Prince of
Wales's set, seems to have decreased during the war with France. Duels
were frequent, and, though towards the end of our period they were
increasingly condemned by religious people, they were approved of by
society at large. For some time men of fashion dressed in velvets and
silks of various hues, but